New Delhi: Leaders of various opposition parties have reached the Election Commission’s office to meet the poll panel’s officials over their demand of tallying of VVPAT slips with EVM figures in an entire Assembly segment in case a discrepancy is found in any polling booth.
Earlier, the leaders met at the Constitution Club in the capital city, to discuss the issue. Leaders from Congress, TDP, left parties, BSP, NCP, AAP and RJD were the part of the meeting.
The opposition leaders are alleging that the EVMs have been "compromised" and "can be manipulated", and thus, there should be tallying of its figures with VVPAT slips.
“On VVPATs and the EVM tally, the EC is yet to come out with a procedure in case there is a mismatch. Even if there is one mismatch in the VVPAT samples picked for counting and EVMs, to maintain the integrity of the electoral process, all VVPATs in that Assembly segment must be counted,” Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Yechury said.
He also dismissed the possibility that a discussion for strategies on the post-results period will be discussed in the meeting of 21 opposition parties today.
Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ashok Gehlot, Abhishek Manu Singhvi of the Congress, TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu, Satish Chandra Misra of the BSP, Sitaram Yechury of the CPI(M), D Raja of the CPI, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal, Derek O’Brien of the TMC, Ramgopal Yadav of the SP, Kanimozhi of the DMK, Manoj Jha (RJD), Majeed Memon (NCP), Devinder Rana (NC) are took part in the meeting among others.
However, Karnataka CM and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy cancelled his scheduled visit to Delhi on Tuesday, where he was expected to take part in the Opposition meeting, official sources said.
Naidu is at the forefront of ongoing efforts to stitch a united opposition ahead of the May 23 elections.
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